You should give it a shot Cap'n. My interest wasn't held in the early stages but it upped its game as the season progressed. Im actually enjoying rewatching the earlier episodes after seeing the later ones for some reason.

Spoilers for episode 2.1 ... I won't inviso as it's the US speed one.

Good episode, a little annoyed that Olivia can't remember her time with Spock in the parallel world but I'm hoping they address that soon. The opening scenes really were some of the shows finest 'WTF moments' especially Olivia's grand enterance. Walter and Peter continue to shine, both getting some great moments. Loving Josh Jackson's work on this, makes me feel a little smug as I've stood by his acting skills since the Dawson's Creek days. The new FBI agent is pretty cool too, seems like she'll be a nice addition.

Charlie Not only am I majorly miffed they've offed him but I don't like the way that someone's stolen his identity, I know it'll make for some interesting episodes but I liked him!

Oh and the relms of disbelief that have to be suspended for this show just rocketed. I did like how the writers anticipated the further X files connections with a shape shifter by dropping a couple of nods to the show. The two I noticed were Mulder and Scully on the tv screen at the start and the officials mentioning something like a former X division, nice touch

Loving Josh Jackson's work on this, makes me feel a little smug as I've stood by his acting skills since the Dawson's Creek days.

Hell, yeah. He was constantly the best one on DC. Always liked Mr Jackson.

quote:

The opening scenes really were some of the shows finest 'WTF moments' especially Olivia's grand enterance.

That bit was great, such a brilliant stunt. Easily one of the best bits in the shows short history. I can't help but think that it was Walters fault though, since he unbuckled the seat belt.

quote:

Charlie Not only am I majorly miffed they've offed him but I don't like the way that someone's stolen his identity, I know it'll make for some interesting episodes but I liked him!

I knew the actor was leaving (or had been axed) but I didn't know they were killing him off, hell, he was out of the country at the start, they could have left him there. I did see the last scene coming though as soon as he fired his gun earlier.

Anyone else think it was funny seeing the one-time singer of Bros in the show? (I know he was in Blade 2 and Hellboy 2 but he was sans makeup and indeed hair, here)

Actually the thing about the shapeshifter taking on Charlie's form doesn't make much sense unless i'm missing something. Could the change really have been done that quickly because it seemed like a much bigger ordeal at the start and Peter was there pretty much straight after the gun shots were fired

The series 2 opener was pretty poor. Great shot of Olivia coming through the windscreen, though. A new female has been added to the cast, why, oh why? Episode 2 was a significant improvement although Walter and Astrid are still being underused.

< Message edited by Erlenmeyer Flask -- 27/9/2009 10:54:26 AM >

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You're in the basement because they're afraid of you, of your relentlessness and because they know that they could drop you in the middle of the desert, and tell you the truth is out there, and you'd ask them for a shovel!

Fifth episode last night, time to try and re-energise this thread a bit.

I liked it. I prefer the alternate world episodes (I may call them 'red' as in the opening credits) even though there are pros and cons. Pacey's more fun here and dramatically it's easier to prolong 'our Olivia' discovering things than it is to have 'their Olivia' keep them hidden, which is something I can imagine growing tiresome if the don't develop it in some way over the coming weeks.

I liked learning a bit more about the amber (which I was vague on previously) and though the twins' storyline was thin, the last shot in the bank was pretty poignant.

Wondering how long they can keep up the alternate episodes tactic without advancing the overall plot a bit more - the ratings are low and a fourth year highly unlikely. Hopefully the writers can just go all out for the rest of the season because this could be a terrible show to just leave hanging after they've done so much good work in establishing its universe. Two of them, even.

So, there's probably an alternate universe out there where this thread has more posts than the Doctor Who one, right?

This week's episode is probably the best of the season so far; my main complaint about Fringe has always been that if you cast an actor of Lance Reddick's calibre, give him something to do, and his Earth 2 variant was just a badass this week. And as I was watching this, I kept thinking something similar about Olivia - she's really effective an action heroine because she's not overtly butch or masculine yet she's by far the most resourceful and capable agent on this show and most of telelvision right now. Torv's come along a long way. The A-plot was decent, though like the previous Earth 2 episode it climbed in quality towards the end with Olivia's escape attempt -- so hoping they'll team up Broyle and Henry in an effort to send Olivia back in the next few episodes. Really looking forward to the next episode.

Irrelevant; it wasn't going to get another season anyway even if got some kind of slight ratings boost in some kind of post-American Idol slot. Best case scenario: as the writing on the wall is clear, the writers will be more inclined to wrap it up rather than do that annoying "We'll end it on a cliffhanger and maybe, just maybe, we'll get another season" move, which always smacks of naiveté towards the industry that they actually work in.

This is why you should never abandon the forum :-) Fox continues to wind me up, the show was doing fine in it's original slot back on the inferior season one days. Moving it to that time slot was ridiculous

I don't think the timeslot change killed it (when was it on? Mondays?) is true -- the biggest issue was that it started off with a lot of self-contained episodes that I didn't take to. I didn't watch after the first few because they didn't interest me, and I am your absolute target audience (aside from the 'not living in America' thing), so there will have been at least some others with a similar attitude. If this show had gone for two years with knock it out of the park alternate universe stuff then I'd be saying it's one of the all time great SF series, right now it's still got that potential (if they absolute nail the remaining S3 episodes), but had way too much padding.

Otherwise, it's just natural errosion. Everything's down year on year, and networks can't be expected to schedule around propping up one particular show, they schedule to maximise their complete range. Thursdays are a tough night in that you have the most competition, but you also have the largest potential audience.

Best episode of the season this week. From memory, the most back and forth they've done across universes in one episode? Really loved the transitions (favourite: Springsteen Station, solid gold right there) and the blue and red opening credits, and I knew alt-Broyles would be instrumental in helping Olivia get back. Arguably a mistake in killing him off though (obviously Reddick's still on the show, but having both versions of that character would be great) and the impact of his return slightly reduced by how obvious it was from the way the previous scene was shot. Still a great idea though.

Personally I liked "in the 70s, I innocently wandered into the wrong home, and it was three days before I realized my mistake. And unlike Olivia, the woman with whom I was sharing a bed didn't look like my wife at all" genius. This whole season has been different class one of the best tv shows on at the moment.

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"The Irish have always been victims of negative stereotyping. I mean people think we're all drunks and brawlers. And sometimes that gets you so mad all you wanna do is get drunk and punch somebody"

Simply amazing. The opening sequence was suspenseful and stylish (and let's not forget, it conisted of two people in an apartment talking), then they just kept upping the ante with thrills, badassitude ("Your daughter's name, what is it?") and a death that was quite shocking to me, even though I should've seen it coming.

So of course this show will probably not get any more seasons.

I don't understand what's wrong with the world...

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"We must never forget that we are human, and as humans we dream, and when we dream we dream of money."

Nice strong start to the run in its new Friday slot (ratings held firm despite the move - 18-49 demo got a 1.9; pretty sure that'll keep it on the air for S4 if it holds until May), good to see Christopher Lloyd in a supporting role and he made a good pairing with John Noble. One thing that Fringe has done a good job of when they've cast the bigger name guests spots is that those roles are well integrated and don't fall into the trap of being showy and just about the guest role.

ORIGINAL: Captain Black Irrelevant; it wasn't going to get another season anyway

I'm being proven wrong so far! Well done American audiences, well done.

I don't think I've been quite as good as the latter half of S2 (could be because I watched that with the episodes closer together so if build momentum), but I thought this was a really strong episode. Now they've got the ground work done, it's impressive how they can just seamlessly insert elements like the shapeshifters and yet for me it's still got that element of 'oh, this cool stuff'.

Noble's chimpanzee face was just genius, as was the chopped off fingers segment. More pro-active Peter (regardless of whether it's a result of the big evil machine or not) is a good thing as his character hasn't been well served so far this season.